


The shadows on your skin

by citrickser



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Tragedy, Cuddling, Dark Magic, End of the World, Falling In Love, Fluff, I Made Myself Cry, M/M, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:55:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29083485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrickser/pseuds/citrickser
Summary: The world would end in a small way, no different from a shadow creeping up from behind you, so little that you don’t realise. But then it’s suddenly there, engulfing everything and you wonder how you missed it in the first place.So, yeah, the world would end.But it would end with him.And Kuroo had no idea how to stop himselfKuroo is a boy made of shadows, seen by no mortal ever and destined to bring about the end of the world, though he has no idea how.But then one day he is seen, for the first time in eternity, by a small, seemingly unremarkable boy with a bad dye job, who might just be the person destined to stop him.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	The shadows on your skin

**Author's Note:**

> Funfact  
> I originally wrote the ending to this to first and then the rest of it kinda just developed out from there

Kuroo had always known how and when the world was going to end. It just seemed like something that had always been somewhere in his mind.

He had tried to tell forget it, he really had but it just kept coming back. So he melted that part away slightly, trying to push it away to the very depths of his mind. Drown it. Bury it. But no matter what he did he could never get rid of it.

He found out people most commonly thought the world would end with fire, or a flash or something big to mark the removal of something significant to them. 

However that was really wrong. 

The world would end in a small way, no different from a shadow creeping up from behind you, so little that you don’t realise. But then it’s suddenly there, engulfing everything and you wonder how you missed it in the first place. 

So, yeah, the world would end. 

But it would end with him. 

And Kuroo had no idea how to stop himself

******************************

He had taken to roaming the streets by the forest at night. It was calming, the dark outlines of trees folding in over him. Also the shadows couldn’t find you when the whole world was buried in night for a few hours. He wasn’t the only one who liked to lurk in the dark. 

Kuroo had an affinity for the strange (perhaps it came with being the cause of the end of the world, who knows) and today was no different. He could hear the birdsong, that sounded sweet but then you would realise ‘why was there bird song at night?’ and it would turn into a whole different tune. 

Kuroo hurried past the birdsong. It would be bad if he stayed around it for long, lured into the depths of the forest by the song, never to see another sunrise. Maybe one day he would come back. It would seem that maybe if he died, the world could breathe again. 

But not today. Today just wasn’t right. 

That was ‘other’, the shadows that creeped in his head. He knew human kind didn’t understand ‘other’ at all, they called it things like ‘depression’ and ‘monsters’ when really the shadows were alive. ‘Other’ was older then the universe. The birdsong was ‘other’, warped into existing at night, serving as a lure and a warning instead of being sweet and melodious. 

You see that was another reason why Kuroo knew he would end the world. He technically shouldn’t be allowed to exist. His being just broke every possible law the universe had put down. The merging of human and ‘the other’ was just wrong. Everyone who knew of the ‘other’ knew that. 

It was said only a dark and light shadow could be born of such existence, fated to whisper away and sink back into the deep earth. A mistake of nature. 

But then if that was true, then what was Kuroo doing on this earth, alive? He found himself pondering over this many many times a week. The most reasonable answer he found was that the shadows infected his mind rather than his body. 

Kuroo would have preferred the body to be infected. It was hard to keep his head straight and keep the end of the world buried. He didn’t know how but he just knew somehow that if he let the shadows over they would never go back. 

Kuroo might have also said he was taking a simple stroll but his feet had clear other ideas, taking him down the damp street, past the corner, with purpose. He could of just melted through the shadows and travelling through them to be there in an instant but Kuroo liked the nighttime air.

There was a human who he had seen, who he was trying to find now again. A small one with dark rooted hair, hunched shoulders and wide eyes. 

Kuroo had been walking and he passed over him, well he would of passed over him, if the boy hadn’t made direct eye contact. 

Humans can’t see him.  
Not ever.  
So why could this one? 

That was what he was going to find out. 

That boy must have also made contact with ‘the other’ too, because what shocked Kuroo more was the boy had it surrounding him, as if in a bubble. 

Kuroo knew he was different. He was reminded it everyday where he stepped into the streets and nobody saw him. They just parted around him, leaving a gap like something in their brain automatically turned them away from ‘other’. 

He was also reminded it in the way he was 17 but had lived 200 lifetimes. The other didn’t want him to leave, for his consciousness to sink back into where it came from, clutching onto his body like it was a lifeline. 

And maybe it was to the shadows. 

They couldn’t cause the end of the world if he wasn’t around anyhow. 

Sometimes if he caught his reflection just right, he could see ‘the other’ surrounding him. It was wrapped around his skin like black, pulsing bandages, flowing and moving around the length of his body. The only parts not covered were his face, feet and hands. Kuroo never stayed for long when he caught that part of himself. 

However that boy hadn’t seen just Kuroo but he had seen ‘the other’ too, as clear as day. From the way his eyes darted around Kuroo, moving over his skin before making their way back to his face, Kuroo knew he had seen it. 

To be really honest, it just fascinated him, a mere small human who could see ‘other’ better then even he could if he saw it coating him at first glance. Not to mention the human had a coating of ‘other’ around him that was just out of reach of his skin. 

Kuroo wondered how that was even possible. It did break the laws of the universe, but then again so did he and he was still around. 

The shadows were subdued in his mind, content with the darkness of the night. Kuroo usually slept during the day, keeping the shadows at bay when they had no darkness to latch onto in the sun and keeping his mind to himself. 

They could still sense that other boy however. Now Kuroo was looking for him, he realised the amount of ‘other’ twisting around the normal boy’s body. 

That was strange. That also shouldnt exist. But maybe it could. The ‘other’ didn’t touch the boy’s body, just floating around it like a thin cocoon. Kuroo wished he could have seen more, but the shadows suddenly reared up in his head. He shouldn’t have expected anything else, it was broad daylight on a busy street with more of the ‘other’ surrounding another being. The shadows were sure to be happy they had found something akin to them. 

So Kuroo had had to leave. He slunk back into the shadows within a blink of an eye, watching from a distance as the boy tilted his head, looking around as if he could find Kuroo again. Kuroo didn’t stick around after that however. 

Now was here. 

It was a small house, nestled between 2 larger ones. It had a pretty front garden but what interested Kuroo more was the ‘other’ he could sense pulsing out of the walls. He closed his eyes. He concentrated on the feel of the ‘other’. And then he was just there in the room. Like attracted to like as they say. 

It was dark in the room, the only light from the screen of a TV, with the boy curled up in front of it on the wooden floor. From the tinny screams and shooting noises, Kuroo assumed it was a video game. The boy didnt move or even flinch when Kuroo sat down next to him. It was like he had been expecting his arrival. 

The boy didn’t speak, not for a long time. He carried on moving his fingers on the controller, eyes flicking back and forth on the screen until Kuroo was unsure that the boy could see him. Maybe he had made a mistake. Maybe it had been a fluke. 

But after a while the boy spoke. 

“What are you?” His voice was quieter then expected and he sounded more interested in his game then Kuroo’s presence. 

Kuroo wondered how to answer the question. 

He wasn’t sure himself. Half shadow, half mortal. Was there even a name for someone like that? 

“I dont know.” he replied, trying to be as honest with the other boy as he could. 

“i didn’t think you would.” 

Kuroo turned to face the boy. 

“What are you?” he asked, ignoring the fact the boy sounded like he already knew what Kuroo was. 

“Human.” the other boy replied, “Just a human able to see the ‘other’” 

“That is impossible.” was Kuroos immediate reaction, because it was. 

The other boy finally turned his eye off his game, a huge pause sign appearing on the screen. 

“You exist. So is it really impossible that i could see the other side?” 

Kuroo thought the words over. He guessed it wasn’t. 

The other boy continued speaking before pressing unpause on his game. 

“I have say you are the first living thing that resembles a human i’ve seen in the other.” 

Kuroo already knew that though. The ‘other’ was pulsing with life but not the type of life he wanted. It was the type that was lurking in the shadows, shrouding normal humans in misery, pretending to be innocent before pulling the killing blow. But there had never been someone else he could talk to in the ‘other’, a physical human being. 

Well until now of course. 

“I am the first one of me ever in existence and will be the last one too.” 

Kuroo found himself replying. Somewhere deep inside him he knew it wasn’t a good idea to be telling this almost stranger his whole life story but he couldn’t help it. It had been soo terribly long since he had spoken to another human being. 

“You repel other.” Kuroo felt the need to tell the boy that, the shroud of shadows surrounding him but not quite able to touch was proof of that. 

“I know.” A few tinny noises relayed from the Tv screen. “You attract i repel.” 

“I’m also the cause of the end of the world.” Kuroo suddenly blurted out, unable to keep it inside him anymore. 

The boy’s voice seemed softer when he spoke again, eyes still fixated on front on his game. He had very wide eyes, golden like a cat. 

“I know.” 

Kuroo melted away then, feeling something akin to embarrassment as he slunk through the shadows out of the room. It was only a few minutes later when he was on the streets and realising he never had the boy’s name. 

Meanwhile, the boy had sighed when he noticed Kuroo had slunk away silently. It was the first thing in a while that had properly piped his curiosity, a mix of ‘other’ and human, doomed with the fate of the end of the world. He almost felt sorry for the thing. 

Suddenly a blast of the minecraft theme tune blared through the room, making the boy jump and fumble with his ringing phone. 

“What?” he pressed it against his ear, eyeing the clock on the wall that states it was 2:09AM. 

“Kenmaaaa.” came the whine of Lev’s voice from the other side. Kenma pressed the hang up button before Lev could get any nonsense about volleyball or any other words in. 

For the rest of the night however he couldn’t stop thinking about the shadow boy who belonging to the ‘other’. Kenma hoped he would come back tomorrow night but then he also didn’t. 

It was dangerous. The end of the world itself was dangerous. Being with the thing that will cause it is even more dangerous. 

But it was interesting. Kenma could finally feel his brain starting to wake up from the slumber of everyday life and he grinned, eyes flashing with renewed energy. 

It was very interesting indeed. 

********************************

Kuroo knew this was a bad idea. Not that that ever stopped him though. 

For first he was in the direct sunlight and it was taking almost all his control to push everything away in his mind. 

Secondly he was also at a high school. It amused him being here, seeing all the waves of kids his age knowing that he would be here if he was human. But he wasn’t here today to reminiscence about what could have been. 

He was here for a reason, to find someone. Kuroo could feel the ‘other’ conforming the air so he knew the boy was somewhere in this school. In the gym specifically. He drifted down there, giving Kenma a massive fright as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere. 

Kenma jumped, acting slightly like a skittish cat, before glaring at Kuroo. Kuroo just offered a grin and a small laugh in return before settling his weight against the wall in one of the shadows. 

It was interesting, the lives of humans. Kuroo did love to watch them. 

Like these ones in the gym. Kenma had gone back to acting like normal (probably to make it seem like he wasnt crazy from glaring at things that weren’t there) but still glanced at Kuroo every once in a while. 

Kuroo however was completely enamoured. He loved watching human’s play sports, but volleyball was his favourite. And for Kenma to be the setter on a volleyball team gave him even more of an excuse to observe it all. If he had been human he would of definitely joined a volleyball team. 

But he was not.  
So he just watched. 

He watched Kenma try to shake off a lanky boy with grey hair and piercing green eyes that kept on following him

He watched them get into a practise game with each other, the ball flying across the net. 

He watched a lot of things but this time his eyes kept straying back to Kenma. Kuroo now knew the boys name was Kenma based on the shouting across the court. 

He was surprisingly agile, eyes calculating the positions of all the players around the court and where he should set the ball. Kuroo noticed he got extremely tired easily but the rest of the team worked around him to combat that. 

But soon enough practise was finished and the rest of the team trailed out of the gym, a mass of noise and sweaty bodies, not one of them noticing Kuroo who was sat against the wall. 

“Why are you here.” Kenma asked him, being the only person left in the gym. Kuroo just shrugged. 

“Why not.” he answered. 

Kenma eyed the black shadows wrapping around Kuroo all the way up to his neck, with wariness. It seemed more volatile today, sliding around his skin with unconfined energy. The shadows seemed to match the exact colour of his bed-head hair too. 

“Your shadows are jumpy today.” Kenma started to walk past Kuroo but within a second the other boy was walking next to him. 

“They’re excited. It’s not often they get a play in the sun. But that means they’re more excited in my head too which is a pain.” 

“Hmmm.” Kenma had his phone out while walking, the tinny sounds of a video game echoing from it. 

Kuroo then had proceeded to follow Kenma to all his classes, lurking around each classroom and just being a general distraction throughout the day. 

In Maths he stood in front of Kenma the entire time generally being in the way. 

In Japanese he was chattering away to seemingly the air in a language Kenma had never heard of. It was highly distracting. 

In History he danced around the teacher all lesson. Kenma was at the end of his tether. 

Kuroo followed him back to his house too, and it was only then Kenma felt his annoyance reach new heights.

“Can you go away!” he all but screeched at Kuroo, startling the other boy based on the way Kuroo seemed to merge into the shadows for a second in shock and then solidify again. 

“Wait do that again.” Kuroo suddenly said. 

He stared at Kenma, wait no, Kenma realised. He was staring at the air around him or more specifically where the ‘other’ was. 

“What is it?!” Kenma, still shouting in his quiet way, had picked up on the other boys sudden silence and calculating gaze. 

“When you shout, and get angry.” Kuroo started, “The ‘other’ pulses like a heart beat around you before disappearing for a few seconds.” 

That stopped Kenma in his tracks. He had seen a lot of thing with his ability of seeing the ‘other’ but he had never seen the shadows that floated around him disappear completely. 

“What.” Kenma repeated, all the anger swept away in one wave of confusion. Kuroo looked equally as confused as he did. 

“I dont know dude.” Kuroo tilted his head, as if seeing Kenma with a new perspective. 

“You are part of ‘other’ shouldn’t you know!” The anger came back at full speed to Kenma, the stress of this just fuelling the flames further. He fumed but avoided Kuroo’s eyes, them no doubt watching the ‘other’ as it flickered around him. 

Then suddenly Kuroo just stopped. 

It wouldn’t be strange for any other person but for Kuroo it was. The boy was constantly moving or doing something to stay in motion, and if he wasn’t moving then the ‘other’ latched onto his skin was slithering around in some form. 

But now nothing was moving, Kuroo just standing there with a blank expression on his face. Kenma thought if he had a proper complexion on his skin, other then being grey and lifeless, his face would have paled right around this moment. 

“I-I have to go check something.” he spat out, words tripping over each other in their haste. “See you.” 

And with that Kuroo just melted away. It always creeped Kenma out when he did that, and it had been done a lot throughout the day. He just couldn’t yet completely wrap his head around how a human and the ‘other’ could merge to create ‘other’ but with a human consciousness. 

“HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?” Kenma shouted louder in the streets, ignoring the fact he probably looked crazy shouting at the air. It was no use however. Kuroo was long gone.

********************************

Kuroo was in a panic. He did actually have an apartment, where he would usually lurk during the day out of the sun like vampire. And that was where he was now but not for lurking purposes.

Another thing not expected of Kuroo was he wanted to know everything about everything. There were books about anything in his apartment, towering up in piles, scattered across tables. 

In this apartment too were the only 3 books in existence that talked about the ‘other’. 

Kuroo felt a bit silly for not realising, for these books to be in existence, there had to have been at least another human who could see the ‘other’. They were old books, all written by one man called Sugawara Koushi in 1954, 1956 and 1957 respectively. 

Kuroo had tried to find this person and cursed himself for many years for being too late. He had lived for eternities but when he finally found the books, the author had died unexpectedly only a month before in early 1958 at the young age of only 25. 

There were 3 volumes that detailed everything about the ‘other’. It was written in first person, a bit like a diary with even some parts being handwritten.

They even talking about things Kuroo had no idea of and he was part of the ‘other’. Most people would of dismissed the books as ‘paranoia’ or ‘the ramblings of a crazy man’ but to Kuroo they were his lifeline. 

He had read them all cover to cover and standing next to Kenma he had remembered something in the second volume specifically. Now he was frantically flicking through it, to find that particular passage again.

There. There it was. 

_....I have heard from the other side that there will be a person in existence, but not in my lifetime, but a being that could repel and manipulate the ‘other’. I have also heard that, that being will be someone who will change the world for the better. I heard they could stop the end. I wish i could have met this person but i will be gone before they will be on his earth for sure. Someone who can see the ‘other’ usually don’t have very long lives..._

There it was, it was talking about Kenma. 

You see this human author, Sugawara Koushi, could communicate properly with the ‘other’, a feat that even Kuroo tried to stay clear of unless he had to. You could gain extreme information from listening to the whispers if you understood them, but Kuroo also guessed they played a big part in his extremely short life. At least he had written it all down. 

It also said, Kenma could manipulate the ‘other’ without it affecting him. Kuroo realised that was probably what he saw today, Kenma unconsciously forcing it away with his emotions when he was angry. 

This was a breaking point. 

He fell back into the old armchair that dominated the room, it not making a noise or even a dent in it with his weight because of Kuroo’s technical non-existence. Maybe this was the answer he had been searching for, Kuroo wondered as he tipped his head back. 

Maybe Kenma was the thing that could stop him from ending the world. 

For the first time in his long life, Kuroo felt something akin to hope lighting up in his chest.

*************************************

Whereas across the city, Kenma couldn’t get Kuroo out of his head. 

It had been a few days since he had just disappeared with the half-assed excuse and now Kenma was back to his nightly routine of gaming until around 3am. But he couldn’t put his full concentration on it. 

Maybe when your life starts to turn like a video game, with the ‘other’ coming properly to life and half-shadow boys who will end the world, games lost a bit of their appeal. 

His concentration wasn’t helped when Kuroo suddenly sprung up next to him, mirroring the thing he did a few days ago when they had first properly met. Kenma jumped. 

“You act like a skittish cat.” Kuroo laughed. 

“Only cause you spring out of nowhere.” Kenma mumbled in return. “Give a guy some warning huh?” 

“So where have you been the past few days?” Kenma added on, trying to sound uninterested but failing. 

That set Kuroo off, him chattering away, swinging his arms around and reeling out information while Kenma silently played his game while listening. 

“Ok, so essentially you found out from a book of someone that could talk to the ‘other’ that you and me are compatible and can stop the end of the world?” 

Kenma summarised after 10 minutes of Kuroo’s rambling. Kuroo agreed with an aggressive nod, showing the barely contained energy and excitement he had brewing about this new development. 

“So what do you want me to do about it then.” Kenma sounded bored, attention back on the video game.

“Well train yourself or something at least!” Kuroo squawked, “Listen you have the power to stop me. We even saw it today when you repelled the other.”

“This get’s more and more like a video game everyday.” Kenma mumbled under his breath. 

“What?”

“Nothing.” 

“Well train with me tomorrow.” Kuroo excitedly stated, in a manner that told Kenma it would be impossible to say no to him. Kenma could almost hear him vibrating with energy. 

However when he turned around to give his begrudging answer of ‘maybe’, Kuroo had already disappeared, swallowed by the shadows without giving any warning. It was exactly the same as when he had first disappeared. 

Kenma eyed the now empty spot and just sighed, face illuminated by the TV screen. 

This was going to be a long week. 

********************************

Kenma wasn’t surprised when Kuroo showed up the next day. 

Only he wished it hadn’t been while he was in the middle of a set during volleyball. To see Kuroo suddenly rise out of the shadowed floor like a ghost completely caught him off guard, Kenma’s arms failing him and allowing the ball he was supposed to set pummel right into his face. 

Why couldn’t Kuroo have just walked in like he did before, like a normal person? 

Kuroo on the other hand was in hysterics, guffawing like a hyena. Kenma was restraining himself from glaring at Kuroo while his team mates helped him up from the floor. It wouldn’t make sense again if he glared at seemingly nothing. 

It was also a sunny day today, much to Kuroo’s woe. In addition to the shadows virtually throwing a party in his head at the light, the sun also meant Kuroo had to be careful where he stepped. He could be in the sun, he wasn’t a vampire mind you, but he just preferred not to be. It was very uncomfortable and hot. 

It seemed he was breaking all his rules of night-time-only venturing just to see Kenma. Not that Kuroo found he minded that much. It was just a bit more difficult on these bright days. 

Kenma somehow seemed to subconsciously pick up that Kuroo didn’t like the sun, taking to walking in the shadows without comment whenever he could as to allow Kuroo to walk beside him. It was something Kuroo was immensely grateful for. 

“So where are we going then?” Kenma was staring at the floor beneath his feet as they walked, a slight change to the gaming on his phone he would usually do.

“What do you mean?” Kuroo asked back and Kenma gave him a dead-inside stare. 

“Well school’s finished, and you were talking about some sort of training.” 

The recognition akin with excitement straight away sprung back into Kuroo’s eyes, making Kenma wish he hadn’t said anything to begin with. 

“Yes, yes. I remember, come with me!” 

Kenma was suddenly yanked away by his hand, being pulled in the opposite direction they had been walking. He didn’t put up a fight, deeming that quest futile. Instead his eyes caught on his own pale hand caught between Kuroo’s bigger but ever paler one.

Somehow Kuroo was warm. 

It was completely at odds against the cold shadows dominating the rest of his body.  
But his skin was warm and soft.

Kenma smiled slightly, a small quirk of the mouth, but he went along with Kuroo more willingly then he usually would of. 

And if he felt a little bit more empty when Kuroo eventually let go of his hand, nobody had to know. 

***

Kuroo had dragged him to what seemed like an abandoned car park. It was in some part of the city where Kenma had never been before and in a place where he had not been before, Kenma always felt slightly anxious. 

He shuffled closer to Kuroo, and Kuroo being Kuroo, picked up on his nervousness straight away.  
“It’s alright Kenma, nothing is around for a while but us two.” 

“What does training have to do with being out in the middle of nowhere?” Kenma said, still looking around like something was going to attack him. The thought that he was acting like a skittish cat again flew through Kuroo’s mind once more and he grinned. It was adorable. 

“Well this is more based off my own experiences.” Kuroo scratched the back of neck nervously, seeming a bit dejected, “I couldn’t always shadow travel you know? I had to learn and i did it too close to people. Let’s just say i’m lucky that nobody died.” 

Kenma didn’t even want to hear the backstory about how that even happened. 

“So that’s why i took you out here, so even if you do cause explosions of ‘other’, nobody is around to see or get hurt!” 

Kuroo had perked up again whilst talking, falling back into being excited. His moods really were like elastic, snapping back and forth within seconds, Kenma noted. 

Before the other boy could start mindlessly talking again, Kenma cut back in.

“So how am i supposed to do this then?” 

“I have an answer for that!” 

Apparently his answer was 3 book volumes that Kuroo seemed to pull out of shadows. Kenma didn’t know he could do that. It was a bit disconcerting seeing his hand melt for a second before 3 books appeared in them.

“What are they?” Kenma eyed the old-looking leather bound books sceptically. 

“Books!”

Kenma shot a scathing look at Kuroo, conveying he very much knew that much. The other boy gulped and hastened to explain.

“These were written by a person who was like you, they could see the ‘other’ but they could talk to it easily.” 

“Wait it can talk?” 

Kuroo nodded.

“Yep. Anyway this person knew what was going to happen, inside volume 2 they mention you and they mention me a tonne of times around volume 1 but that isnt important.” 

Whilst he had been talking, Kuroo was frantically flicking through one the books until he found the page he needed. 

“Here.” he stated, gesturing for Kenma to read the passage he was pointing at. 

Kenma was definitely a bit shocked, someone who was told the future and knew about them years and years before they had been born? More over they knew that if Kuroo helped Kenma control his power’s then they could save the world? 

It all seemed a bit too good to be true.

“How can you trust this person?” 

“Well they taught me things about the ‘other’ i didn’t even know about, and i am part ‘other’ myself. Nothing has been wrong with what they have said before so this must be right too.” 

It seemed a valid explanation but Kenma couldn’t quite unwedge the caution lodged in his heart about the books. But he had no better solution for the whole problem.  
All he could do was believe Kuroo now. The boy had been around a lot longer then he had been anyway. Even though his childish attitude and behaviour lead Kenma to forget that sometimes.

“So i’m going to save the world huh?” 

“Well if we can manage controlling your powers.” 

Kenma took a deep breathe, again feeling like an unfortunate protagonist in a video game.

“Ok where do i start?” he asked, peering at Kuroo through the curtains of his dyed hair only to see the other boy grinning uncontrollably.

**********************************

It definitely didn’t start off as well as Kenma and Kuroo had hoped. 

Volume 3 of the books surprisingly had a whole section to controlling the other, but it was phrased in ways that were specific to Kenma’s situation. He wondered if the author had wrote these to help him, knowing one day he would have to control the ‘other’.

It was all quite strange.

So with using that volume 3 of the books , they made a start. Kuroo set Kenma off with the same thing he had done many years ago to master his own shadows. 

“Ok first, you need to feel the ‘other’. You can’t connect and control if you don’t know of it’s existence after all.” 

“How can i feel the other in the first place?” Kenma asked back in turn. Kuroo had to pause there. How would a somewhat normal human feel the ‘other’? 

He stared at Kenma, who was standing infront of him, flexing his hands as if that would do something when it suddenly  
hit him.

“Your emotions!” he called out. 

“My emotions?” Kenma repeated.

“When you were angry it moved, so be angry!” 

Kenma fixated him with another withering glare.  
“I can’t just be angry, it doesn’t work that way.” 

“Ok, ok,” Kuroo held his hands up infront of him in a gesture of free will, “Maybe other emotions?” 

Kenma tilted his head, contemplating this when Kuroo spoke out again. His face had gone slightly red, seemingly for no reason.

“I-I’m going to try something, don’t get mad.” He said, the words doing the opposite and instead putting Kenma even more on edge. Kuroo was getting closer and closer to him, his face gradually turning pinker. He ended up towering over Kenma, who only came up to Kuroo’s shoulder. 

Kuroo felt his heart beating rapid beating in his chest, the shadows on his body doing the opposite, slowing down their slithering in the same anticipation he was feeling. Kenma of course had no idea what was happening or going to happen. He had his head tilted back slightly and was staring his golden eyes up at Kuroo, making unusual eye contact.

It really was a pretty face. 

Kuroo knew this was the only way to make him show some sort of surprise emotion. He only hoped Kenma wouldn’t hate him after. 

Kenma’s eyes widened as Kuroo’s head bent towards his.

But he didn’t step back.

Kuroo’s hands came up, one settling on Kenma’s waist and the other wrapped around his back. He could feel Kenma breathing against his chest as he pulled the other boy closer. 

“W-what are you doing?” Kenma quietly stammered

Kuroo could now feel Kenma’s heartbeat.

It had been a long time since he had heard the heartbeat of any other living thing. 

Kuroo gulped before starting to move his hands along Kenma’s back, tracing the ridges of his spin and the planes of his back through his thin jumper. Kenma was stuttering breathes in soo lightly Kuroo wasn’t sure he was breathing anymore.

But it had worked. 

From the part of his brain that wasn’t overloaded with a constant stream of ‘Kema, Kenma, Kenma, Kenma’, Kuroo saw the ‘other’ around Kenma (around them both now) twisting and shaking up and down. 

He smiled, not able to help pressing a soft kiss to the top of the other boy’s head, tucking his hair behind his ears on one side.  
It was a shame no one could see that face normally with his curtain of hair. 

He should probably let go of Kenma.

He didn’t want to let go of Kenma. 

But then Kenma made that choice for them.

His head suddenly jolted up from it’s resting place against Kuroo’s chest, as if he suddenly realised what was happened. Immediately he backed away, hands pushing against Kuroo’s chest until his arms retracted from his back. 

Kuroo let him go with a pang in his chest. 

“W-why did you do that?” Kenma looked a bit shaken and a bit startled. But he hadn’t completely run away yet and Kuroo counted that as a win.

“Look,” Kuroo gestured to the air around Kenma, or more specifically the lack of ‘other’ that hovered. Of course when Kenma realised it wasn’t there it all came crashing back around him but it was a start.

“It’s emotions and feelings.” Kuroo added on, “If you can use your emotions to project the ‘other’ to your will then we’ve solved it!” 

The blush on Kenma’s face was slowly fading as he tilted his head warily, causing his hair to fall back down from where it had been hooked behind his ears into their usual curtains. 

Kuroo went back to lurking in the small section of shadows of the car park. 

“So mirror a time when you felt intense, intense emotion, try to grab onto that emotion. This is gonna sound really vague but try to feel the air around you with your mind and grab hold at the same time.” 

This mini-speech lead to another one of Kenma’s glares at Kuroo, getting across the fact, that those instructions were incredibly vague and sounded stupid. Kuroo just dismissively waved a hand in the air.

“Just try, you never know!” he said. 

Kenma huffed but stood up straighter. The other boy was right, it wouldn’t hurt to just try. So that’s what Kenma did.

He felt back to when he had been happy. It seemed to him happiness would be less explosive and volatile then anger. Then he tried to reach out, picturing what he knew the ‘other’ around him looked him, imagining he was able to reach out and touch it.

Then it hit him.

Kenma didn’t know how that had even worked, but there was now a steady thrum of energy he could feel threading through his veins. But there were also voices whispering in his mind. Was this how Kuroo was? 

The voices however didn’t stop, the volume becoming louder and louder and louder until Kenma couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, he had to let go, let go, let go, let go. LET GO.

Then it was calm again.

Kenma felt dizzy.

But when he opened his eyes the thought he might have moved somewhere else for a second. The ground around him was cracked, deep fissures sinking into the concrete of the abandoned parking lot. Dust mixed with shadows filled the air, making Kenma cough on his first deep breathe inwards.

He had just destroyed the parking lot. 

When the dust mixed in with the shadows finally disappeared, Kenma couldn’t help the small laugh that left his lips at the sight of the Kuroo.

The shadow boy clearly hadn’t been expecting any of that to happen. He was standing straight upright, back rigidly locked into place, probably by the onslaught of ‘other’ that had come at him.

The hair on his head stood straight up as if he had been given an electric shock, seeming a deeper shade of black then usual. His wide eyes and the remnants of ‘other’ that had been blown into his faced added to that effect. 

Kuroo, while Kenma was sniggering as him, was trying to collect his thoughts from where they had been nearly shocked out of his head. 

Kenma was a natural. 

It had taken him days to even sense the other that wasn’t inside of him to travel when he was training but here Kenma went propelling it outwards in only the first attempt.

He couldn’t control force, direction or gathering it yet but it was ok, they could work on it. They could work on all of it.

When Kuroo felt like his face muscles could finally work again, the first thing his mouth did was crack into one his usual grin. 

This could be successful.

************************************

They decided to stay at the now cracked up parking lot to practise. First of all people wouldn’t ask questions because long abandoned places are usually a bit destroyed and secondly they could destroy it more and it wouldn’t matter to anyone.

Kuroo’s shock at Kenma’s inhumanely fast progress only grew as the weeks passed by. 

By the end of the first week, Kenma could will the ‘other’ outwards and back, controlling the force of it by the second one. 

Kuroo had often took to slinking into Kenma’s room late at night, rising up from the very floor where he would usually end up asleep on later in the night. If Kenma didn’t take pity on him, that is. Sometimes Kuroo would wake up slumped against Kenma. 

There was that one time Kuroo awoke with his head resting on Kenma’s lap, nose pushed into his stomach. Kenma was unbothered above him, eyes fixated on the TV screen and still not yet realising Kuroo was awake. It had been a nice night. 

But now it was currently a saturday, the end of the second week after they started training. Kenma had been feeling different for a while, like his bones had become too heavy for his skin. Kuroo had said it was just probably just his body adapting to the sudden surge in energy it had to carry daily. 

But still it was exhausting. 

Even now, with Kuroo sat up rigid on the wall and the blur of video games on the screen, Kenma couldn’t keep his eyes open. It was like they were being dragged down against his will.

The controller soon fell out of his hands, and from somewhere next to him Kenma faintly head a concerned whispering of his name but it was too late. Kenma was out like a light.

Kuroo meanwhile was left with a sleeping body slumped against his side. Out of nowhere Kenma had just fell against him and then was just suddenly asleep. 

It made Kuroo a bit guilty however. 

He knew all this sudden dropping off into sleep suddenly was a fault of the ‘other’ and the toll the shadows took on Kenma’s body. 

Kuroo had settled into a routine when this sometimes happened, picking up Kenma bridal style and carrying him over to the double bed that lay in the corner of the room. 

But this time after depositing Kenma under the blankets, Kuroo lay down next to him. The crease in Kenma’s forehead was gone when he slept. Somehow one of Kuroo’s hand found it’s way to that forehead, brushing back his hair from his face. 

Kenma had beautiful face. 

It was really was a shame it was hidden. 

A real shame. 

And Kuroo couldn’t blame himself when he felt the harsh tug of tiredness against his own eyes and he fell into sleep right next to Kenma. 

*********************************

There was something warm on his chest, Kuroo noticed, feeling the heat emanating onto it. Something else was also tickling his cheek uncomfortably and Kuroo unsuccessfully tried scrunching his face up to get rid of it. 

He dragged his eyes open to see the top of Kenma’s head right in front of him. Kuroo was in exactly the same position he was when he fell asleep (he never moved around) but now Kenma had attached himself to Kuroo. 

His head was tucked under Kuroo’s chin, the source of the tickling on his cheek being Kenma’s hair. He had wrapped himself thoroughly around Kuroo during the night, arms encircling his chest and legs tangled together under the sheets. 

He must be a messy sleeper then, Kuroo realised, if they had become that entangled during the night, Kenma’s body gravitating to the nearest heat source. 

Kuroo could feel his face growing slightly hot when Kenma unconsciously dug his face further into his chest in a response to Kuroo carding a hand through his hair. He really was cute. 

Suddenly he felt Kenma freeze up. 

So he was finally awake then. 

Kuroo kept his hand carding through the other boy’s hair, curling it over his ears. He didn’t want to stop, afraid the moment would shatter like glass as Kenma became more awake. 

“Kuroo.” 

“Yes, my dear.” 

Fuck.  
He hadn’t meant to say that

“Pretend i didn’t say that.” Kuroo added on in a solemn tone, trying to backtrack. 

“For both our sakes i will pretend you didn’t.” Kenma replied, wriggling himself out of Kuroo’s grip and out of the other side of the bed. Kenma was being exceptionally calm about the whole situation. 

“Come on.” 

“What.” Kuroo responded, still digesting the embarrassment he caused for himself. 

Kenma wrinkled up his nose. 

“You smell, take a shower.” 

He walked out the room to the tune of Kuroo’s protests and squawks about how he didn’t smell, dodging the pillow thrown at him from the bed narrowly after. 

*******************************

“Ok today i decided we’re gonna do how to concentrate the ‘other’ in one space seeing as you pretty much have the whole repelling it outwards thing under control.” 

Kenma nodded, showing he was listening to Kuroo. The sky was dark and grey today, no hint of the sun, allowing Kuroo more easily found freedom to walk around the smashed up carpark. Kenma shivered in the wind. He probably should of probably worn a coat or something. 

When Kuroo waved a hand as if to say ‘get on with it’, Kenma knew where to start. Reaching out to the ‘other’ had become a lot more easier in the recent weeks. He only had to outstretch with his mind and then it was there, thrumming through him. 

Kuroo never voiced his opinion of his newfound connection to the ‘other’, but Kenma could tell it unnerved him, how easy this came to him, like a duck taking to water. It was a bit scary to Kenma himself.

Today instead of forcing the ‘other’ away from him, he dragged it together. It really didn’t want to go together, screeching protests in that weird garbled language Kuroo sometimes spoke, at the back of Kenma’s mind. 

He just ignored it, used to the screaming after weeks of practise. 

Eventually he could see it in his mind, collected together in a writhing mass

But he could also see the moment where something snapped. 

When Kenma lost his connection and the other fell apart, rushing right through his welcoming outstretched hand instead of pinging off the bubble around him. 

“Oh.” Kenma whispered, eyes snapping open momentarily to see the look of terror on Kuroo’s face. Kenma expected himself to black out or let the darkness pull him down into the depths... but nothing like that happened. 

When Kuroo grabbed his shoulders, Kenma felt like everything was happening through a bubble, his words jarred and muted with blurry vision. The thrums of power were running past Kenma’s veins, but he could feel it deeper then he had ever felt before whilst training. 

But then it was over as fast as it came. Kenma’s mind snapping back like a piece of elastic, the power and the voices of the ‘other’ leaving and the world coming back into crisp vision. 

“Kenma!” Kuroo had been shouting his name. Kenma slapped his arm in response, to tell his to lower his voice. Kuroo caught on, but his arms still stayed clasped around Kenma’s shoulders. 

“Kenma.” Kuroo repeated in a quieter tone now, voice noticeably laced with relief. 

“What happened to me?” Kenma was finding it hard to look into Kuroo’s eyes, or anywhere in the general direction of his face. He was honestly a bit scared of the deep emotion he knew he would find on there. 

“I-I think when you tried to pull the ‘other’ you lost concentration.” 

Kuroo paused to let Kenma either confirm or deny his statement but when the other boy did nothing Kuroo carried on.

“So the ‘other’ rushed back you, through the passageway you had virtually left unguarded. It’s inside you now. I-I got to you too late. I couldn’t pull it out while it was still floundering.” 

Kenma could feel Kuroo was shaking a bit. He was more shaken up then Kenma and he was the one who had been attacked by the ‘other’. Maybe it was the thought that Kenma would have to go through what he battled on a daily basis now he had part of the ‘other’ living inside him. 

But Kenma didn’t think so.  
The voices would have started by now right?

Kenma voiced that opinion to Kuroo but if anything it made the other boy shake even more. His judders were echoing into Kenma so Kenma did the only thing he could think of. 

His arms curled around Kuroo’s back, face pressed into his upper chest in a warm and meant to be comforting hug. It took all of 2 seconds for Kuroo to return the gesture, squeezing Kenma soo hard he almost couldn’t breathe. 

And it was like this, with Kuroo’s head curled to rest on his shoulder, Kenma caught sight of his own hands when they moved. 

The veins running through them were tinged black.

Kenma frowned. 

*****************************

“No it’s too dangerous now!” Kuroo’s voice was raised, the desperation and frustration evident in them. Kenma just sighed.

They were both back in what seemed to be the default setting in Kenma’s eyes, his dark room late at night with a video game flashing across the screen. But today Kuroo was acting off. 

“I need to continue.” Kenma answered, voice staying even. 

“I-I can’t allow that!” 

“Well it’s not your choice.” 

At the dangerous tinge to Kenma’s voice, Kuroo seemed to deflate. He slumped to the ground back to where Kenma had been sitting throughout this entire thing. 

“I’m sorry.” Kuroo mumbled, “I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

“Well doesn’t the fate of the world rely on me?” 

Kuroo deflated even more, his mood sinking with his body until he was half covered in shadows. Kenma was a little bit obsessed with the actions like those, the way how Kuroo and the shadows melded and danced together. Times like these too, when they just reacted to his mood without Kuroo even realising. 

“I’m sorry.” Kuroo mumbled again. Kenma shuffled sideways closer until they were touching shoulder to shoulder. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” 

“I’m sorry for this.” Kuroo picked up Kenma’s hand, gently turning to over from the palm so it exposed the black tinged veins. Oh, so he had noticed after all. 

“Oh stop this!” Kenma slapped Kuroo on the arm again for about the fourth time that day. He felt unusually pissed off. “You couldn’t have done anything about it anyway, it’s not your fault idiot!” 

Kuroo seemed taken back at his sudden outburst, eyes widening, but that didn’t stop Kenma. Kuroo was slapped again but on the other arm. 

“You hear me!” Kenma shouted, voice lowering back to normal but the threatening edge still as loud as ever. “Stop moping around.” 

And with that, and the fact Kenma was feeling exceptionally brave after that yelling, he leaned back into Kuroo’s arms.

“Now hug me.” he huffed. 

“Yes sir.” was Kuroo’s silky reply, letting Kenma slide into his chest between his legs. 

Kenma had managed to placate Kuroo silently with his outburst, showing that nothing had changed outwardly or in his personality. However Kuroo could still feel the remenants of the ‘other’ sliding around inside Kenma’s body, the thought of it making him sick if he kept reaching out to feel for it. 

Kuroo tightened his arms again without meaning to around Kenma. The other boy must have been able to sense some of his shadows too now, but Kenma wouldn’t have said anything about it anyway. He was being incredibly calm for the situation they were in. 

Kuroo must have dozed off at one point because he woke the next morning on the floor of the apartment, bones creaking from lying on the wood all night. As expected Kenma had retreated to his bed at some point, leaving Kuroo to suffer the hard floor. No matter how much his muscles screamed at him, Kuroo laughed slightly. 

Yeah Kenma was the same as usual. 

***********************************

The next few weeks passed surprisingly uneventfully, well for Kuroo at least. Kenma had thrown himself back into the training with the same resigned attitude mixed with subtle determination. 

Kuroo was still on edge from the incident a few weeks ago and it didn’t help whenever he focused his senses, he could feel the ‘other’ radiating a lot more from Kenma. The other boy was getting a lot better at controlling it but Kuroo was still being a coward. 

He still hated this. 

He hated how the black in Kenma’s veins subtly but noticeably were creeping darker and darker.

He hated how the strain of it hollowed out his eyes but whenever Kuroo would beg him to take it easier, Kenma would just smile sadly at him and shake his head. 

Kenma meanwhile was really struggling. 

He would never admit it out loud, because then Kuroo would make sure he would never continue doing this. But Kenma needed to do this. It was the fate of the world. 

So when he fell into Kuroo’s arms and into a dreamless sleep full of dark whisperings every night, he just repeated to himself it would all be over soon. It would all be worth it in the end. 

He didn’t have the energy to play video games anymore. 

One day however it reached a breaking point for Kuroo. The voices were at a crescendo inside of his head, individual ones shouting, shrieking and clamouring as if there were people right next to him yelling into his ears. 

They had been silent for a few days, instantly putting Kuroo on alert. They were never fully quiet unless something was about to happen. And this was that something he guessed.

It was the middle of the day, a dark and damp one when Kuroo fell to his knees, hands clutched around his ears as if that would stop them. 

“Kuroo!” Kenma shouted a few steps away from the shadowed section Kuroo had been standing in. Kuroo barely heard him over the noise. Kenma ran over. “Kuroo!” 

Kuroo felt his eyes twitch uncontrollably, head still bowed into his legs. Kenma’s arms  
had grabbed his ones at some point. The world was woozy. 

“Kuroo what’s happening?!” Kenma sounded panicked. 

“M-My he-ead.” he forced out in response. 

“I can see it.” Kenma whispered back, sounding disturbed. 

The shadows on Kuroo’s body were going erratic and Kenma could only imagine how painful it must be in his head. 

“W-wait it out.” Kuroo spoke again, louder then before. Kenma noticed a few long seconds later the shadows around his body had stilled their erratic movements again. They just swirled around, docile again. Kenma frowned. 

Sure enough a minute later, Kuroo was able to raise his head again and move the hands away from his ears. 

“See i’m fine now.” Kuroo winced, but Kenma could still hear the strained undertones in his words. 

“What happened.” Kenma asked a bit forcibly. “And if you respond with ‘nothing’ i’m going to force the answer out of you.” 

It was only when Kuroo let out a sigh, Kenma realised how close his face was to the other boy’s. A few more centimetres and their nose’s would brush. Kenma gulped, suddenly nervous, moving backwards as if to escape the situation. 

But a hand around his jaw stopped him in his tracks. Kuroo’s eyes were still unfocused and dazed, seeing without seeing when he pulled Kenma’s face back towards his.

Kenma forgot how to breathe when Kuroo pressed their lips together. They were warm, another part of Kuroo’s body defying the coldness of the ‘other’. Kenma froze, an automatic reaction. 

Kuroo pulled his lips away, hands moving to clutch onto Kenma’s jumper. His eyes clouded even further as he moved back to press his lips to Kenma’s. 

Kenma thought if his heart thudded anymore it would burst out of his chest. And when he tentatively moved his lips back against Kuroo’s soft ones, Kuroo’s hands clenched further into Kenma’s clothes, shaking slightly.

The kiss was soft, it was heart aching and Kenma could feel the emotion Kuroo put into the force of his lips. It was over too soon. Kuroo pulling away, still with a hazy smile on his face. 

Kuroo opened his mouth to speak but before he could do anything, his eyes rolled into his head and he collapsed onto Kenma in a dead faint. Kenma, being a skinny, underweight boy couldn’t deal with the full weight of Kuroo’s bulky body, leaving him to fall backwards too. 

Kenma hesitantly brushed a hand through Kuroo’s disaster hair. He was lying flat on his back with Kuroo’s unconscious body almost trapping him against the floor. Kuroo was lettting out little puffs of breath against Kenma’s neck. 

Kenma smiled slightly despite the situation. Kuroo obviously hadn’t been ok after that invasion of his mind shown by the haziness of his eyes and was also probably why he suddenly collapsed like that. 

But it would be ok in the end. 

Kenma’s lips tingled.

He felt alive for the first time in a while. 

*********************************

When Kuroo came to, he was surprised to be on a bed this time. What was more surprising was it was Kenma’s bed. But what really put the cherry on the cake, was the fact that the smaller boy was curled up next to him, half his body on Kuroo’s chest, dead asleep. 

It was a welcome change to the surroundings he remembered collapsing in. 

Kuroo grinned, feeling his heart melt a bit at the sight. Especially when he ran his fingers through Kenma’s hair and he leaned into the touch. 

“Kuroo?” came a groggy question. Whoops, Kuroo hadn’t meant to wake him up. 

“Yes my dear.” 

Kuroo had a wicked deja vu moment suddenly remembering when he had spoke the same words just a few weeks ago. However this time Kenma didn’t give him a glare or backtrack, only closed his eyes again. 

They both didn’t move for a long time but the urge to know what the hell happened eventually made Kenma properly wake up. 

Kenma had never been one to beat around the bush.

“What happened?” he asked, again, phrasing it more as an order to tell him then a question. 

“I’m not sure.” Kuroo softly replied. Kenma could hear the vibrations of his speech through his chest where his head lay. “This only happens when there is something big about to occur in the world.”

“You mean it’s happened before?” Kenma raised his head to look Kuroo in the eyes. He was relieved to see they had lost the hazy, dazed film and were clear again. 

“Yeah, only once. It was around late 1345 and then the next day i heard there was a plague around. Of course that plague ended up killing 25 million people.” 

“So the ‘other’ started the black death?” Kenma asked in which Kuroo responded with a nod, “I wonder how that happened, you old man.” 

“Excuse me!” Kuroo spluttered causing Kenma to fully roll off of him and sit up on the bed. “I’m only...” 

Kuroo trailed off before speaking again. 

“Shit i really am old.” 

Kenma sniggered at him but stopped when he saw the look Kuroo was giving him.

“What?” Kenma asked, a bit self conscious under his gaze.

“You’re just soo pretty.” Kuroo casually answered, making Kenma splutter this time.

“You can’t just say that!” 

“Why not, you returned my kiss, this is the best day of my life!” 

Kuroo lifting his arms in the air, still lying flat on his back to get his point across. Soon those arms however were attempting to grab Kenma and pull him back down to the bed. 

“Ok, stop getting off topic, what did the voices say in your head?” Kenma slapped Kuroo’s arms again and they slithered away. 

“It was garbled, as in soo garbled i couldn’t understand full sentences and i’ve spoken it my entire life.”

“Could you make out any words?”

Kuroo fell silent for a moment, wracking his brain for the distant memories of that moment. 

“I heard a few of “destroy” and “soon” and there was “king” that was said a lot of times.” 

Kenma’s face had paled considerably. 

“What is it?” Kuroo asked, jolting up to a sitting position now and facing Kenma on the bed.

“Don’t those words describe the end of the world though. The king, king of ‘other’ destroy, that’s the world and soon.” 

Kuroo was quick to action. He leapt off the bed, still being fully dressed minus his usual jacket and shoes which he found draped across the back of a chair.

“Where are you going.” Kenma called after him. 

“If this is really happening now i need to check something. Stay inside until i get back.” 

However in his desperate sprint towards the door, Kuroo suddenly remembered something. He paused for a moment.

“Wait how did you get me back here by yourself i am about twice your body weight?”

Kenma looked even more uneasy if that was even possible. Kuroo waited for an anwser, a sinking feeling appearing in his gut seeing as there only could be only possible way but Kuroo really didn’t want that to be the case.

“I shadow travelled.” he whispered before adding on in a louder voice, “Kuroo how was i able to shadow travel?” 

“I’ll be back. And when i’m back i’ll have the answers to everything.” 

“Hey wait!” Kenma outstretched an arm but Kuroo paused only to blow Kenma a quick kiss before seeping through the shadows and disappearing. 

The room already felt a lot colder without Kuroo there. 

********************************

Meanwhile Kuroo was having a crisis. He had burst through the floorboards in his crammed apartment and immediately begun agitated pacing up and down. 

That was one thing that couldn’t be possible. It wasn’t a thing like his existance which ‘shouldn’t’ be possible, this just absolutely could not ever happen. 

Which meant the absolute worse.

It meant that Kenma had started to become shadow or shadows had started to coat him. 

Kuroo should of stopped this.

When the shadows seeped into Kenma weeks ago and his body started to visibly decay, Kuroo should have put his foot down, locked Kenma in his room if necessary. 

He would do anything for Kenma. 

Kuroo stopped his pacing.

That was a scary thought. 

Pushing his thoughts away for a moment, Kuroo ignored the renewed hollering of the ‘other’ is his head and looked around for the real reason he was back at the apartment.

The books lay on the sagging armchair in the corner, volume 3 lying open from where Kuroo had been re-reading it. Right away Kuroo grabbed volume 2, the volume with the most about Kenma in it.

If there was a way to stop this with Kenma and anything to tell them where and how the end was going to happen, it would be in here. Kuroo had read the book from cover to cover multiple times but it wouldn’t harm to check. 

He immediately found the extract he had been searching for, in the middle of page 53 to be specific.

_“Today was an usually silent day. There was barely any noise from anywhere except for one voice. I could feel it lurking silently but then it spoke to me around 1pm.  
It said to me “It ends now at this right time. Push it away, if they bond it ends. If the boy begins to shadow it ends. Whispers lie as screams echo. Stay away from him, or push each other with the world towards the edge.” _

__

__

_Then it suddenly disappeared. I just dubbed this speech as nonsense as some of the whisperings are._

But to Kuroo it wasn’t.

Reading this book before he would have never realised because the events hadn’t happened but then Kenma began to shadow and the whispers in his head turned to screams. 

It had been a warning.  
A warning that would make no sense until the deeds were done. 

But what shook Kuroo even more was the line of “Stay away from him, or push each other with the world towards the edge”. What did that even mean?

Had they been causing the end by being together? 

No.  
Surely that wasn’t possible right?  
The book itself had said. 

But then again Kuroo had never dared to entertain the fact that that the book might be wrong. 

The voices were louder now in his head, humming promises of the end as if mocking Kuroo’s discovery. The book was wrong, that was the only explanation. Somehow he was pushing the end closer with Kenma. 

Kuroo felt like he could scream. He had it wrong. The book he had staked his hopes on had been wrong. It had lied, bringing the world even closer to the end then it had ever been before. How had he been soo stupid to trust something written by someone he had never met?! 

The shadows bubbled louder and louder in his mind, pleased at his anger. They were always loud nowadays. 

It was close to the end, he could feel it. But Kuroo couldn’t stop it from happening if he didn’t know how it was happening! 

Kuroo was furious, furious enough to thrown the book at the empty apartment wall, it slapping against it with a dull thud. But something else caught Kuroo’s eye. 

Something that fell from the book as it hit the floor. 

It was a letter. With Kuroo’s fit of anger it had dislodged where it had been  
wedged inside the back cover, drifting down to lay face up on the floor. 

Kuroo’s breathe was taken all over again. 

It was old, as could be seen, with the age showing in the wrinkled and brown corners of the envelope. With shaking hands, Kuroo reached down to pick it up and nearly dropped it all over again when he read the words scrawled on the front. 

> To the being that will end the world

was written on there in sloping, spiralling and slightly smudged ink handwriting. It was the same handwriting that the entries inside the book were written in. He knew instantly the letter was from Sugawara Koushi to him. But how had the author known about anything? 

If he knew of Kenma’s existence then he had to of known about Kuroo’s but why was there a letter to him? How had the author even known he would find the letter or even end up with the book in the first place? 

There were soo many questions he wanted to ask this person. Kuroo could only hope this letter could answer at least some of them. 

_This is the last thing i will ever write. I fear i might i have caused the end by accident. All i can do now is pray you find this letter before you act on the words inside this book. Listen to me, i was tricked, you need to stay far away from the person who repels the ‘other’. They are your other half, you attract the other, they repel it but together you will cause the end. I have only a few hours of my life left but i am giving these books to a companion and they will definitely find you somehow.  
  
I am sorry_

Kuroo had dropped the book he had picked up and was out of the door in the shadows before it even hit the ground, letter clutched in one hand. 

It couldn’t be too late. 

He had left Kenma in the apartment, hoping he would be safe there. But as soon as Kuroo crashed up back through the floorboards he just knew something was wrong. 

And he was right. 

Kenma was gone, the only sign of his existence there being the rumpled blankets on the bed that were still slightly warm. It seemed Kuroo had just missed him, him and whatever took Kenma. 

There was only one other place where they could of gone. Kuroo sank back down through the floorboards and the next time he opened his eyes he was at the abandoned parking lot.

Well what it used to be.

Now it was covered in swirling shadows of the ‘other’, them rolling around Kuroo’s feet and into the air before crashing down. The immense force of it all momentarily made Kuroo dizzy.

But then he spotted the pale figure he knew to be Kenma, standing in the middle of all the chaos. 

However it but it was only now that Kuroo knew the truth about everything he could see the swirls of the ‘other’ around him.  
He had been mistaken. 

It had been bending to Kenma under his will, but they had also been slowly breaking him, forcing him into shadow just for this day. The worst thing was the ‘other’ had managed to do that without Kuroo or even Kenma noticing. 

That explained why the voices were louder then ever in Kuroo’s head. They were excited. 

“KENMA STOP!” he shrieked, trying to be heard over the swirling shadows that twirled around Kenma like a tornado. Kuroo could barely see Kenma because of the denseness of them. 

It was horrible to think just an hour ago both of them had been intertwined in bed with each other. 

But when Kenma turned to face him, Kuroo took an unconscious step back in the wake of the two fully black eyes that stared back at him. He could see the ‘other’ twirling around in them, akin to the type that crawled across Kuroo’s skin currently. 

He was too late.

The ‘other’ had taken his power, because of Kuroo and their relationship, the ‘other’ drained him dry and then took over his body as a vessel. 

But what horrified Kuroo more was when the-‘other’-possessed body of Kenma started to speak to him. He regarded Kuroo soo coldly, in a way that was soo completely unlike Kenma it made him shiver. 

“My son.” came the words out of Kenma’s mouth, in the garbled ancient language of the ‘other’ that Kuroo could speak. 

Ok whatever he had expected the ‘other’ to say it was not that. Kuroo had known he was part shadow but had never expected this. 

“My son,” it repeated, “Join me, the king of Shadows, on our dais to the new world!” 

It stretched out it’s arms, causing a new wave of shadows to come crashing around further into the city from the empty parking lot. 

But before Kuroo could answer it seemed the ‘other’ in his brain did the talking for him. Kuroo’s mind was buckled momentarily, the force of the waves of ‘other’ and this new pressure too much. 

“Yes my Lord.” came the words out of his mouth even though Kuroo hadn’t spoken them. The shadows were going wild now, slithering all over his skin and in his brain equally. They wanted control. It was this time that they had been waiting for since his creation. 

Kuroo slapped himself hard across the cheek, willing the shadows to sink back. He couldn’t lose his mind to them, not here and not now, especially when Kenma’s life and the whole planet was at risk. He had been fighting with the shadows his whole life, he was an expert at keeping them contained. 

He could do it for a bit longer.

When he spoke again, Kuroo’s words were entirely his own. 

“No,” he stated, standing his ground, “I won’t join you.” 

A displeased look flashed across Kenma’s face, as if the ‘other’ had expected him to join right away.

“This world has nothing for you.” Now it was trying the persuasion tactic on him, “You who sink and melt into shadows, who other humans can’t even see. You were born to be forgotten, born for this moment right here. This is what your whole life is about!” 

Kuroo could feel himself shaking. 

“No,” he just repeated, his mind panicking too much to think of anything else to say, “No, no, NO!” 

“Oh i see,” disdain flashed through Kenma’s face again, “That trick we used on that human writer wasn’t enough. You fell in love with the humans, or more specifically you fell in love with this one, the one who could actually repel us.” 

The ‘other’ gestured to itself, showing he meant Kenma, and when Kuroo’s rage startled to bubble over, the ‘other’ just laughed. 

“It doesn’t matter anyway.” The ‘other’ turned away from Kuroo and back towards the waves of shadow, “This one is strong but he is still not enough, he will disintegrate soon and i will have to move on.” 

Kuroo’s anger was soo hot his vision stared to blur. The shadows on his skin were in a savage frenzy, their skittering making the ‘other’ turn around back towards Kuroo. Something akin to pleasant surprise was on Kenma’s face. 

“There you go my boy, let your anger fill you, rage my son, rage.” 

However Kuroo’s mind had finally made it past the rage and used that to kickstarted into action. He knew he didn’t continue to want to live on the earth if his Kenma was gone. There had never been someone like him before and there never will be ever again. 

He knew exactly what he had to do. 

“I want to propose an offer.” he shouted. 

The ‘other’ tilted it’s head to let Kuroo know it was listening, “I-I will give you my body, a shell made to house shadows that will never decay but only if you let that one live.” 

Kuroo could barely believe those words were coming out of his mouth. 

But he didn’t regret it.  
Nothing mattered.  
Nothing mattered except Kenma. 

“A deal is done.” it replied back with, after a careful moment of consideration, “But i do feel sorry for you my boy. I shouldn’t have let you wonder with the mortals for this long.” 

The last thing’s Kuroo saw was shadows rising out of Kenma’s body, letting him fall to the ground like a puppet who’s strings had been cut. But before darkness took over his vision fully, Kuroo saw Kenma’s golden eyes open. 

He was glad to have seen those eyes one last time. But he was saddened that it was fear clouding them, Kenma shouting and fearing for Kuroo, struggling to get to his feet but it was all too late and then Kuroo couldn’t see anything at all. 

He felt powerful but also powerless at the same time, like something was tearing him apart from the inside, leaving shadows in it’s wake.

‘Oh’ he gasped

This was how it ended. He finally knew the reason why. It ended when he let the shadows over his mind, allowing them to spill into the earth. The shadows that fed off of his time with Kenma. 

So it really was the combination of him and his Kenma that would cause the end of the world huh, Kuroo destined to be the ultimate vessel for the King and Kenma destined to harbour that power inside of him, ever since that day where it was sucked into his body. 

Kuroo felt like he should be panicking, a long long time he had been on this earth, he didn’t want to see it grow dark. But he wasn’t. In fact Kuroo couldn’t feel anything anymore. 

Somewhere in the distance he registered someone shouting. Maybe he once knew them. Maybe he loved them. 

But that didn’t matter. That never mattered. 

As the shadows leaked out of every pore in his body, Kuroo could feel the whispers more in his mind. It was a garbled mess of an ancient language as they spoke, flowing out of him like a waterfall. But somehow he understood every word. 

They repeated the same phrase over and over. 

“Thank you master.” 

With those words, he knew it was futile. His whole life had been for this exact moment. Kuroo just closed his eyes against the tide of shadow pouring from them. 

He felt something wet on his cheeks.  
He was crying.  
Why was he crying? 

As his life drained out with the shadows, Kuroo suddenly remembered his name, the boy who he had loved. 

Kenma, Kenma Kozume who could repel the ‘other’. Maybe he would save the world now he was himself again. Who knows. It needs a saviour.

But there was nothing Kuroo could do  
about it now. 

There was a tugging at his brain, a pull to drag him down deeper. 

Kuroo just let his mind drown, his last thoughts about a small boy with a bad dye job until he could no longer think at all. 

He should have known there couldn’t be a happy ending for someone who wasn’t supposed to exist anyway. 

***************************

Kenma couldn’t think.  
He couldn’t breathe.  
Kuroo was gone, shadows pouring out of his body until it was no longer his own.

He couldn’t see the ‘other’ anymore.  
Because the ‘other’ was everywhere.

It was the end of the world. 

But none of that mattered to Kenma because the one person who understood him wasn’t here and would never be again. 

The one person that mattered was already gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I warred with myself for soo long whether to put major character death in the tags or not. 
> 
> But i decided against it. 
> 
> Because this story of Kuroo and Kenma isn’t over yet. 
> 
> (And i also wanna write a mini story about what really happened to Sugawara Koushi 70 years ago)


End file.
